World Domination System

Inside his own mind, Daneel felt trapped.

After joining the separated piece of his consciousness with the rest, he hadn’t been able to form thoughts for what felt like the longest time. But just as the system had predicted, the increased strength of the opposition made it so that his mind won small victories against the ghosts that had only managed to corrupt a patch of land around them.

This made it so that he could slowly regain the ability to think, but his body was still under the control of the Axelorians. The first thing the ghosts had done on entering him had been to cut off the connection between his physical and mental self, so if he wanted to be able to help in the war once again, he needed to defeat this opponent.

Yet, as time passed, the Axelorians grew more and more stubborn. They had no way of knowing that they were helping the Church even by delaying him, but as their instincts screamed that they should do as much as possible to the one who they thought was the reason behind their pain, they hunkered down and went on the defensive. This made it much harder to push them back, as until now, they had at least been trying to stretch out and corrupt more of him, thereby exposing themselves to being attacked by his consciousness.

It’s taking too long. It’s taking way too long!

The first thoughts he formed were all filled with frustration. In here, time had slowed down to a snail’s pace, but still, he knew that every second was precious. Every second that passed was one where his countrymen could be dying on the outside, but focusing on the battle in front of him, he tried to forget about the war.

Yet, as time passed, he found it harder and harder to keep his mind off his sovereigns, and his people. If he was someone normal, he would have had no way to know what was going on in the real world, but with the system at hand, all he needed to do was ask. He fought with the temptation as the risk was all too real that any emotional changes might make him vulnerable to be attacked by the ghosts. After all, he was his consciousness and his consciousness was him, so any drastic change in his mood would certainly affect the battle.

All of that changed when a scream managed to cut through the void that separated him and Angaria.

"Alright, screw it. System, show me the war."

The first thing his eyes went to... was the image of Kellor lying on the ground, his face devoid of all blood and his body leaking the Energy that lay within.

D-doesn’t that happen when someone is close to death?

He felt fear and despair creeping up on him with this thought, but he forcefully controlled them both and said, "Show me everything that happened until now."

When he was done seeing a replay of the war, he felt his mind go blank.

"RAAAAARRGHHHH!"

The roar of the ghosts brought him back. As he averted his eyes from the images being shown to him by the system to see the state of his consciousness, he saw that they had doubled the area under their control. His consciousness redoubled the efforts to force them back as soon as he returned, but it was already too late: all the ground they had gained until now was gone, and once again, the ghosts went on the defensive.

Dammit. Dammit! DAMMIT! How could I be so stupid?!

Even stopping the curses was hard. He had known the risk, but still given in... and like a mouse entering a trap thinking that it would be fast enough to snatch the cheese and run away, he had shot himself in the foot.

Not knowing what to do, he looked around for something, anything that might help him. A different emotion kept calling to him, but at first, he foolishly ignored it, thinking that it might do harm again.

It was only when he found nothing and stopped to think about what he was doing that he saw his folly. Not intending to waste any more time, he gave himself to the rage that had built up like a storm and reinforced his efforts to wipe the ghosts off the face of his consciousness.

The anger made him stronger. Soon, he had succeeded in gaining back almost all the ground he had just given up, but then... a soft voice echoed into his mind from the outside.

"Rise, my Godking, and avenge me."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

With a mindless scream, Daneel turned back to the image of the outside and saw his queen going up in flames.

"NO! NO! NO! NO! Save her! Please! System, save her!"

[Activating Godnet to teleport targets. Teleportation failed. Using telekinesis.]

As he watched Eloise and Kellor were being lifted from the conflagration and being borne away to the center, he couldn’t care less about the ghosts, or anything else in the world.

The main quality of the Tenebrous flames was that they would keep burning, no matter what, until their target was reduced to nothingness. As soon as both of them landed on the podium, the Goddess of Healing rushed to them, but she was powerless.

[Host’s mageroot required to control the Tenebrous Flame. Individual known as ’Eloise’ was only able to remove the wall holding the flame back. Without recovering, host cannot act to stop the spread of the flames.]

With the backdrop of the soldiers of the Church screaming, the Goddess of Healing looked around desperately for a solution. Daneel felt a seed of hopelessness take root, and right away... the ghosts pounced on it.

But even as they devoured his mind and spread farther than they ever had before, he kept his eyes on his queen. He felt a moment of hope when the Goddess of Healing cursed and cut away her hand. Holding it with her other hand, she laid it on the bodies of Eloise and Kellor.

Somehow, the turquoise colored flames ran to her flesh as if it was much more tasty than what they had been gorging on until now. The skulls that could be seen inside the fires of the Tenebrous Knights even looked like they were more gleeful than usual as they began to eat through the skin of the Goddess. They soon licked their way upwards to engulf the rest of her body, but just in time, she threw the hand away, leading to the flames disappearing disappointedly after reducing their prey to nothing.

But the damage was already done. Kellor and Eloise were barely recognizable. Their bodies were just scorched husks with no noticeable features to even separate them.

When the Goddess of Healing reached them again, she stretched her hand forward... but before she could do anything, Kellor’s body disintegrated into green ashes that were swept away by the air. Eloise’s body barely retained its shape, but after the old lady turned to her and cast a spell, she pulled back her hand and shook her head.

That was the last straw. As all the time he had spent with the two of them flashed in front of his eyes, madness swept over him like a wave. The ghosts gleefully flew out of where they had been hiding until now, knowing that their prey was the weakest they would have ever find him. They went here, there, everywhere, corrupting everything they touched, and soon, the farmland that had been a lush green for the most part when he had first seen it began to show signs of being dominated by the black rot.

At the same time, the things that the ghosts had screamed at him when they had first entered his body came back in his mind. All of the thoughts that filled him were of desperation and depression, and in a few moments, it looked like the weapon of the Bishop would succeed in its goal.